ANNIE- Part 2

So Stan took Olivia in for day 2 of her Annie Auditions for Broadway. This time the girls were put into groups of three for the part they were trying out for. Olivia is the smallest, so she is being cast for Molly (remember the musical?) So she was in a group of three Molly's. During day 2 the judges eliminate 66% of the kids left (so they take one kid out of every three-some).

Olivia first had another singing round where she had to sing "never fully dressed without a smile" all the way through and "Tomorrow". There were 6 judges and Olivia told me that when they asked her to sing she said "with or without actions?" they said  "whatever you want to do" she then said "OK- WITH!" and proceeded to sing "never fully dressed"  with her own choreographed dance moves....the ones she does in the  living room for her stuffed animals. She said all the judges were smiling and one was laughing! Hahahahah-- I have been laughing to myself all day about what kind of show these judges got as parents are not allowed to watch!

She made it through that round and the next round they brought in a dog for the girls to pet to see if they were afraid of dogs. Sandy (Annie's dog) is a big part of the play...so screaming girls cannot accompany the dog.   Everyone was ok but one kid, who was desperately trying to not freak out...but it is hard to hide. Olivia made it through that round (thanks to living with Jill's dogs at an early age) and went onto an acting round (her first acting round).

While we were at the Annie Workshop, we were given preparation materials (such as the script!)  Olivia had her lines memorized, and was the only kid who didn't have to try to read the script, act and impersonate a New York accent. As you know, Olivia has an American accent, which the judges are in love with. We are still trying to work on a New York accent with Olivia but American is still closer to NY than an Australian accent!  Olivia made it through this round easy and was then put into a dance round.

The dance round is Olivia's weakness--She has only done one term of tap & ballet, and it was in Mary's kindy class because I didn't want to sign her up for her own class :-)  The other  kids there are Dancing DIVA'S...which was made apparent as they could slide into perfect splits and whip out cartwheel after cartwheel! I just taught Olivia a cartwheel last week and she still bends her knees....

Somehow, Olivia made it through. She was the one picked out of her group of 3...which I am sure was due to the singing and acting. After she was invited back for the final call back (only 8 other girls left and they cast three Molly's and one back up). After we got out, I took her to a professional dancer teacher for a 2 hour lesson on the routine she learned; (just to help her clean it up and figure out all those tap moves and jazz moves we have never seen before). She learned it almost perfect (the moves are right and clean but she just doesn't have the flare and confidence that the other girls have).

The last day of auditions Olivia was not a happy girl. She had to get up early and even though she had everything down she was "tired" her last audition was 3.5 hours. The first round they did a singing round again. Three girls were sent home.

With 6 girls left.... the last round was a dance round (DIE). The dance choreographer taught the girls the last part of the 1920's tap/jazz dance to "your never fully dressed without a smile"  They had 10 minutes to learn the dance, and then they had to preform.  Olivia got "muddled up" and they asked her if she wanted a second chance. She took it and still didn't have the dance down. The other girls did. She got sent home :-(

When we got home she cried! I gave her a bath and realized she had broken out in hives during the last audition round. I feel awful for putting her through that much stress!! I am also relieved that I don't have to run her to 4 hours of Annie rehearsals straight after school for 6 days a week over the next 10 weeks. I am also a tad disappointed because she tried so hard and got SO CLOSE. Every night Olivia would pray that "she would be happy no matter what happened" instead of that she would "get the part". I was really impressed with her perspective!

It's a hard knock life!